Prior to the days of television, radio was a popular home family entertainment. Radio guides, that is the listing of radio presentations to be broadcast over the air during a certain period of time, for example, for a single day of the week, were usually provided on a single page in the back of the local newspaper. In metropolitan areas, for example where daily newspapers were published and sold, the radio program for that particular day was printed in the daily paper, the radio guide was based on time.
In the days of radio and in the days of early TV, program guides were relatively simple. Presentations broadcast were, for the most part, presented live over the air and presentations were not often repeated. Furthermore, the number of broadcast stations, both radio and/or TV were relatively few in any geographical area and both simple, there often being only two daily programs, one program for radio and one for TV.
With relatively few radio stations and/or television broadcast stations or channels receivable in a given geographical area, such as the New York Metropolitan area, for example radio and TV programs, which were set forth on the basis of time, were easily readable and selectable by type.
With the advent of cable television, the number of TV channels receivable over television sets connected to the cable system was greatly increased. The use of satellites for transmitting TV programs further increased the number of channels receivable in any one geographical area. Additionally as the number of TV channels receivable by television sets increased and the technology of TV advanced, recording of complete TV shows or presentations became extremely common. Further, with more TV channels available around the clock, an even increasing number of motion pictures and documentaries and other programs were broadcast over TV. In order to make motion pictures and other types of programs available to more people, these programs were often broadcast or aired several times during the same day and on different days of the week, some times by several different channels. This factor alone make TV programs based on time difficult to publish and difficult to read and select the desired program because of the great number of channels and also because of the repetition of TV presentations involved.
In order to simplify TV program guide and make them more useful and readable, the basis on which TV programs were set forth, that is, the basis of time was changed and TV programs based on titles or types of programming (ie. news/documentary, children, sports) were set forth. This system in the case of movies, produced a long list, in alphabetical order, of TV presentations to be broadcast over a specified period of time, usually a week, with the dates, times and channels over which the particular presentation was to be aired listed after the title of the movie. In some cases this list was discontinuous, starting on one page of the program guide but being continued on several or even tons of pages later on.
It has been suggested that programs, based on presentations on show names be presented to the public as cut-out or tear-out stamps. Each stamp identifies a TV show or presentation on one side and on the other side the schedule of airing is set forth. An organizer may be set up on the basis on the type of program and time, for example, sports for a week or more and pockets in the organizer may be made to receive the stamps according to one's choice and schedule of TV viewing. My U.S. patent entitled Programming Device, U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,225, Registration Date--Mar. 28, 1989 teaches the use of such TV presentations identifying stamps and the use of a TV programmer which is in the form of a calendar, in mirror image, with a transparent flip sheet in the form of a rack or organizer for storing cards or stamps having dates thereto relating to the name of title of a TV presentation on one side of the card or stamp and the schedule of airing and the channel on which the presentation is to be aired on the other side of the card or stamps.
Although the self programming TV programmer of my said copending application is useful and practical, it would be desirable to have the programs prearranged by groups.
An improved programmer which obviates these limitations is taught by my U.S. patent entitled TV Program Organizer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,124, Issue Date--Jul. 25, 1989 describes a programmer or organizer that is made from very inexpensive materials, is made very simply and inexpensively and is disposable. The organizer is assembled from a plurality, preferably three (3) sheets, which are of the same width and length. The sheets are folded at a common point. The sheets are glued with stripes of glue or other sheets are assembled thereby forming a plurality of lateral, parallel pockets for holding cards and/or stamps containing data thereon. The material from which the organizer is made may be stock paper, such as 25 lb directory stock and the adhesive may be an inexpensive adhesive or glue. The organizer can be assembled from paper cut into sheets from a roll supply or pre-cut paper and oriented into an offset alignment. The oriented sheets are then folded and secured together to form the organizer. They may be assembled using a sheet paper supply wherein the supply includes a stack of cut paper sheets. Sheets may be separated from the stack one at a time in a group of form sheets and oriented in offset alignment. The sheets may then be folded and secured by strips of adhesive.
Although the improved TV Program Organizer of my co-pending application is useful and practical, it requires that the TV shows or presentations in the type of programs on interest be individually selected from the tear-out stamps and then arranged in the organizer. For example, if the type or area of program of interest is sports, all the tear-out stamps of interest in the sports area must be found, then individually torn from the sheets they are printed on and arranged in the organizer. In many instances, it is more desirable to ahve the programs preselected as to areas of interest.